What exactly is evaporative cooling?
Among the climate control systems used in the food manufacturing industry, evaporative cooling is the most energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly system available.
If you’re looking to cool a modern manufacturing facility, three main methods can be used, either as a stand-alone solution or in combination to create a so-called hybrid solution. Mechanical ventilation, refrigeration-based air conditioning, and evaporative cooling are the three types of air conditioning available to consumers.
Neglecting indoor air quality while pursuing other energy efficiency goals, such as tighter building envelopes, can result in building environments that harm the health, comfort, and productivity of your employees, thus defeating the overall goal of building design, which also includes cost savings and reduced energy consumption. Because of its ability to meet the demands of facility cooling while avoiding the high capital and operating costs associated with the other two cooling methods mentioned above, evaporative cooling has emerged as the most popular of the three cooling methods mentioned above.
Evaporative cooling systems, as opposed to air conditioning systems that use re-circulated air, circulate cool fresh air throughout a building and force out the stale hot air that has accumulated there. After passing through a cooling chamber of water, the fresh air from the outside is circulated throughout the building using an air-conditioner.
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Nature has provided precedents for cooling through evaporation, with human perspiration serving as the most obvious and straightforward example. When it comes to evaporative cooling of machinery and buildings, the same principle applies:
What are the various types of evaporative cooling systems available to you?
Direct and indirect evaporative cooling are the two types of evaporative cooling. Most of the concerns about evaporative cooling, such as introducing humidity into the environment, are concerns about direct evaporative cooling, which is a different method of cooling than indirect evaporative cooling.
Evaporative cooling in direct contact with the air
A direct evaporative cooling system is the most basic type of evaporative air conditioning, and it is widely used in hot and dry climates worldwide. It is common for this system to employ a fan to draw hot air from the surrounding environment, which is then passed through a wetted medium. During the process of evaporation from the wetted medium, water absorbs heat from the air, resulting in cooler air leaving the evaporative cooler. As a byproduct of the evaporative process, the water that remains is also cooled.
Evaporative cooling is used in an indirect fashion
Water coils are used in the indirect evaporative cooling process, which takes water that has been cooled according to the same principles as the direct evaporative cooling process. During the passage of the supply air through the coil, it cools in a reasonable manner (no added moisture). As a result, the indirect evaporative cooling supply air does not come into contact with any liquid.
To determine the efficiency of evaporative cooling tends, compare the temperatures of the dry bulb and wet bulb, which results in the wet-bulb depression being calculated. The psychometric chart below illustrates how a combination of direct and indirect evaporative cooling can provide 125 percent wet bulb cooling efficiency while introducing up to 50 percent less moisture into your environment, according to the manufacturer.
In contrast, while evaporative cooling can be used in virtually any industry sector, it is most commonly found in food manufacturing facilities. This is because the high temperature maintained within these facilities significantly reduces the level of humidity, thereby rendering most of the concerns associated with evaporative cooling moot and creating the environment necessary to improve the method’s operational efficiency.
According to our knowledge, a large number of food manufacturing companies are still utilizing general ventilation equipment and opening doors to reduce overall heat. The reality is that this is frequently ineffective, resulting in a stuffy environment with little or no air movement, particularly during the hotter summer months, which are accompanied by extremely high energy consumption expenses.
Evaporative cooling, when used in conjunction with strategically placed ventilation, has the potential to solve these problems with unprecedented energy efficiency and incredible cost reduction.
Increased efficiency and operational capability by introducing fresh, cool air into your facility are two benefits of evaporative cooling.
As a result of the elimination of refrigerant gases and the reduction of carbon emissions, your company’s environmental credentials will improve as well.
